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The Cooper STT Pro and the BFGoodrich KM3 are both highly capable mud-trained tires
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that feature robust lugs and deep biters. Despite their impressive off-road capabilities, they perform well on pavements and provide
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a balanced overall performance. While there may be some minor differences between the two, you can't go wrong with
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either one of them as they are both really well-rounded choices. Let's start things off with their designs
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The Cooper STT Pro is designed with three prominent ribs of equal sizes, each rendering
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aggressive tread features such as offset sides, in-groove longitudinal notches, and sawtooth
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providing excellent traction and stability on smooth roads. Additionally, some selected blocks also feature wave-like siping
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In contrast, the BFGoodrich KM3 has a more straightforward design with lugs that are
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only equipped with thick slits and minimal notches on the shoulders. Though like the Cooper STT Pro, its lugs are also arranged laterally, with the central
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ones appearing as extensions of the shoulder blocks separated by longitudinal grooves
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So you still get very efficient self-cleaning abilities on this tire as well
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And helping to that are its dual stone ejectors, where the triangular ones are placed on the
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outer tread voids and the conventional ones are seen between the shoulder lugs just like
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its competitor. Now that we have seen the tread of both tires, let's take a look at how both of these perform
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on highways. Despite both being mud-terrain tires, the BFGoodrich KM3 performs better compared to
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its counterpart. This is due to its closed central tread voids, which results in shorter braking distances
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Additionally, the KM3 features a lighter nylon cap line and reinforced foundations combined
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with shallower tread depth, and all these features keep its lugs firm enough even though
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the tire has a softer overall tread composition. With reduced flexing of the lugs, the tire not only provides superior steering response
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but you also get a better fuel economy as energy is not wasted into the bending of the
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blocks and instead is consumed in rolling the tire as a whole
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On the other hand, the Cooper STT Pro tends to have a bit more resistance when turning
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initially and with a little more effort, the tire suddenly responds and that leads
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to oversteering. This results in a larger delay compared to KM3. Moreover, talking about wet traction, although both tires are really lacking, the softer
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compound of KM3 still provides better flexing to the sides and so they are able to wipe
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water away much more effectively. Though these sides are better optimized for winter performance
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Let's talk about that. Although both tires are not 3-peak mountain snowflake rated, the BFGoodrich KM3 still
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provides better traction on snowy terrains. Moreover, unlike its competitor, the tire also supplies with much better thermal adaptive
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rubber, so its slits stay malleable in grabbing the particles on the ground and making snow-to-snow
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contact with them. Basically, snow on snow generates greater friction compared to rubber-to-snow contact
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This is due to the interlocking design of the snowflakes, which tend to stick together
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hence we have a term called snowball effect. That's why the BFGoodrich KM3 demonstrates superior performance on snow due to its effective
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bite that provide better snow-gripping capabilities. In comparison, the Cooper STT Pro, although offers more biters and snow vices on shoulders
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their limited flexibility fails to deliver comparable results. When it comes to off-road performance, both tires offer exceptional capabilities compared
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to other mud-terrain tires. Let's talk about Cooper STT Pro first. So this tire offers an impressive combination of directional and lateral traction thanks
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to its numerous biting edges in all directions. While its sidewall lugs are not as pliable, they still have the ability to flex and provide
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remarkable climbing capabilities when operated with lowered air pressure. On the other hand, the BFGoodrich KM3, with its limited biting edges, may not perform
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as well on rocky terrains. The tire shines on sand, no doubt about that
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This tire has smoother outer edges that are unlikely to dig, and its sidewall lugs spread
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out over a larger surface area with lowered air pressure. This basically provides a larger contact patch with the ground for exceptional flotation
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abilities, which is very essential on sand if you don't want to get stuck
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Other than this, both tires perform similarly on muddy terrains, where their wide lateral
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grooves function as paddles, and the outer staggered shoulders and sidewall lugs provide
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the necessary scooping to extract the tire even when it's deeply entrenched in mud
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Basically, on loose ground, there are two main things, faster evacuation and paddling
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That's why paddle and balloon tires do so great on this terrain
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And with both of these mud-trained tires having a very voided structure combined with lateral
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orientation of lugs, you get a great combination of paddling and escaping of the mud
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Lastly, let's talk about tire sizes and see all the specs they have
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The Cooper STD Pro comes in total of 49 sizes in 15 to 22 inches, whereas the BFGoodrich
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KM3 features 56 total sizes in 14 to 22 inches rim diameters
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They all have the following specs
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So what do you think? Do tell in the comments. And please make sure you subscribe to our channel if you haven't done so already
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